The women’s U17 team lost decisively to the Czech Republic
Today, on March 11, the Estonian women’s U17 team played their second match in Rouns 2 of the European Championship qualifying tournament, when they lost 0:5 against their peers from the Czech Republic.
The Czech Republic secured a solid lead already in the opening half, when Lucie Krejcová scored the opening goal in the 14th minute, Radka Jakubu added another 20 minutes later, and Lucie Kroupová scored the third goal. The final score was formalized in the second half by Czech captain Katerina Vithová, who scored a penalty in the 53rd minute and scored the fifth goal of the team in the final minutes.
According to Aleksandra Ševoldajeva, head coach of the national team, today’s opponent was from the same class as Poland, who were met in the opening game of the tournament on March 8. “We analyzed the first game of the Czech Republic, but today was a little different from that, so the opponent surprised us today with some situations. We were not able to solve these situations sufficiently, and today we were not able to play out the moments we have agreed on and which we should have kept better, as we did against Poland,” Ševoldajeva explained today’s match.
“In the second half, the biggest change were the substitutions, which created a balance between attacking and defensive players. The substitute players did a good job and that helped us get into the game better. In the first half, the first balls belonged to the opponents and with that they were able to counterattack, in the second half we started to win more first balls ourselves, we were able to switch to attacks and with that we were able to create opportunities under the opponent’s goal as well. Unfortunately, it was not possible to create an even more dangerous situation from there to score a goal,” Ševoldajeva said.
The last game of the tournament awaits Estonia on Tuesday, March 14, when they will meet the host of the tournament, Romania, at 4 p.m. “We are hoping to win the game for sure, and are thinking and work towards that goal. There are many options on how to do something on the field, and now we have to figure out the most suitable approach with the coaches, which would also be suitable for our abilities and at the same time effective enough,” added Ševoldajeva in conclusion.
The match between Estonia and Romania can be watched live via the video platform of the Romanian Football Association. On today’s match day, the host of the tournament will face Poland, the match kicks off at 16:00.